The Sales Evangelist · 2026-07-06 · 15 min
Key moments - from our scoring
Substance score
43 / 100
Five dimensions, 20 points each
Donald C. Kelly tackles a common sales challenge: how to address competitors credibly without damaging your own reputation. Rather than directly criticizing competitors, Kelly recommends three tactical approaches. First, identify competitor weaknesses through internal sources and structure your presentations to emphasize your strengths in those exact areas - framing it as 'most competitors don't have X' rather than naming them directly. Second, leverage your own customer base as proof points, explaining why existing clients switched from competitors like Laserfiche by using language like 'the reason why our customers who partnered with them chose to come to us was because of...' This approach carries more weight than direct criticism. Third, turn the conversation around by asking prospects what doubts they already have about competing solutions, validating those concerns, then supporting your case with customer testimonials. Kelly illustrates these techniques with real examples from enterprise software sales, emphasizing how research platforms like G2 and Google Reviews can provide third-party validation without you appearing desperate or negative.
Rather than criticizing the competitor directly, identify their actual weaknesses through research, then frame your strengths around those gaps using language like 'most competitors don't have X' or 'they excel at Y but struggle with Z.' Let customer testimonials and your own customers' reasons for switching do the heavy lifting.
Ask the prospect what doubts or concerns they already have about that competitor, validate those concerns based on what you've heard from other customers, then support your position with specific customer testimonials and case studies addressing their exact pain points.
Reference why your existing customers switched from competitors by saying 'the reason why our customers who partnered with them chose to come to us was because of...' followed by specific limitations the competitor had - this carries far more credibility than you stating it directly.
Use third-party review platforms like G2 and Google Reviews to identify common customer complaints and limitations with competitors, then reference these themes in conversations without claiming you discovered them.
Focus your demonstration on the specific pain points and capabilities where you know the competitor is weakest, emphasizing the strengths that matter most to your prospect's unique situation across multiple departments or use cases.
Our reviewer’s read on each dimension, with quotes from the episode.
The episode delivers three concrete tactical frameworks for addressing competitors in sales conversations (positioning around weakness, leveraging customer migration stories, letting prospects self-badmouth), which are actionable and not obvious platitudes. However, the content is padded significantly with sponsor reads (~4 minutes of a 15-minute episode), throat-clearing, and repetitive explanations that dilute the substance-to-time ratio.
if I'm going to give a demonstration, I'm going to push on the thing that I know the prospect is facing the biggest challenge with and how we can solve that. And I'll point out some of the weaknesses that may be able to, that others might have
The easiest way that I found to be able to do that is just simply say, you know, one of the reasons why customers. And so this goes back to Laserfiche
The three tactics (weakness-focused positioning, customer proof points, prospect validation) are sensible but not novel - these are variations of standard competitive sales positioning advice that circulates widely in sales training. The Laserfiche case study adds some specificity but doesn't introduce genuinely fresh or contrarian thinking.
you can create your next conversation or your next meetings around your strength and emphasize the weaknesses of the others
most of our competitors don't have blank because of that can help you to solve X, Y, Z problem
This is a solo host monologue with no guest present. Donald C. Kelly is the host/instructor, not a third-party practitioner being interviewed. There is no guest caliber to assess.
I'm your host, Donald C. Kelly, the Sales Evangelist
I'm going to tackle a question that came up. How do you talk about a competitor without sounding like you're bad mouthing them? Well, I want to give you my insight
The episode provides one strong real-world case study (Laserfiche in document management/clerk offices) with concrete details about their go-to-market strategy and customer profile, and mentions G2 and Google reviews as sources. However, the broader frameworks lack numbers, metrics, or outcomes; no conversion rates, deal cycles, or quantifiable results are provided to validate the tactics.
Laserfiche was a competitor. When I was selling software in a document management space, they did a very tremendously, amazingly good job getting to the clerks
They went to all the clerk convention conferences and they were present when it comes to being in front of the clerks
This is a monologue without a conversational partner, so traditional host-guest dynamics do not apply. The host does directly address an imagined caller and poses hypothetical prospect questions, but there is no actual back-and-forth, follow-up questioning, or productive disagreement. The structure is prescriptive instruction rather than exploratory dialogue.
I would love to hear from what you are coming across. How are you handling that?
Well, you sounds like you've done some research already. What are some of the doubts that you have about, say, prospect C?
Computed from the transcript - who did the talking, and the words that came up most.
How do you handle competitor questions without sounding defensive, desperate, or unprofessional? In this solo episode, Donald C. Kelly shares three practical strategies for talking about competitors with confidence and credibility. Instead of attacking another company, he explains how to use customer stories, thoughtful questions, and your prospect's own insights to position your solution as the better fit. If you're in a competitive sales environment, this episode will help you navigate competitor conversations in a way that builds trust and moves deals forward. Episode Breakdown with Timestamps: Why You Should Prepare for Competitor Conversations (00:00:31 - 00:01:30) Donald explains that prospects are often evaluating multiple vendors at the same time. Rather than being surprised by competitor questions, sales professionals should prepare their messaging ahead of time and understand where their solution stands out. He emphasizes that preparation gives sellers confidence when those conversations arise. Lead With Your Strengths Instead of Attacking Competitors (00:01:31 - 00:02:30) Donald shares his first strategy for handling competitor discussions.
Transcribed and scored by The B2B Podcast Index.
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Speaker A: How do you talk about a competitor without sounding like you're bad mouthing them? Well, today I'm going to give you a strategy that I utilize that helps me out every single time. Check it out. Foreign. Hey, hey, hey everyone. Welcome to another great episode of the Sales Evangelist Podcast. I'm your host, Donald C. Kelly, the Sales Evangelist. Uh, and I'm so excited for another great episode. I'm so excited to be here with you today. On this episode I'm going to tackle a question that came up. How do you talk about a competitor without sounding like you're bad mouthing them? Well, I want to give you my insight and some things that's worked for me. If this is your first time listening to AH, our podcast, please subscribe and I'll be sure to notify you every time we drop a new piece of content, especially topics like this that's going to be quick, punchy and relevant that you can apply right now. So here's the thing that I would tell you. Your prospects usually might be looking at multiple competitors at the same time. If you know that it's in your Best interest to prepare accordingly. So let me give you an example. Prospect will be, uh, say they're looking at me in competitor A, I'm competitor B and they're looking at competitor C as well. Well, I found out this information through my champion or through some kind of internal source that let me know they're looking at A and C as well. What I can do in my presentations or in my conversations that I'm having with that prospect, I can identify weaknesses from those competitors and be sure to emphasize our strength in that. So if I'm going to give a demonstration, I'm going to push on the thing that I know the prospect is facing the biggest challenge with and how we can solve that. And I'll point out some of the weaknesses that may be able to, that others might have. I wouldn't say anything about them, their name, but I, uh, say most of our competitors don't have blank because of that can help you to solve X, Y, Z problem. And that way I am building my presentation around them. But specifically if a prospect, if I'm talking to the prospect now, this is scenario two and A prospect, I need to at least explain I know they're looking at A and I know they're looking at C and they're really, you know, invested. How can I say this without making them sound like I'm a desperate seller or I'm just trying to badmouth them? Um, the easiest way is I use my customers to tell. Now, more than likely you have a customer that were with competitors A or competitor C at one point. So the easiest way that I found to be able to do that is just simply say, you know, one of the reasons why customers. And so this goes back to Laserfiche. Uh, again, I've talked about these people so much now on my, on the podcast, Laserfish was a competitor. When I was selling software in a document management space, they did a very tremendously, amazingly good job getting to the clerks. They just found a way. They went to all the clerk convention conferences and they were present when it comes to being in front of the clerks. Now with that being said, because of that they knew the clerk offices inside and out. So when a customer would ask me about the competitor, and specifically I knew they were going after using that particular competitor or liking that competitor, what I would do is I would talk about the good things that they do. Now even a, uh, broken clock is right two times a day. Right. So the piece that they did, well, I would say in most of our prospect were with city, county governments in K12, they did have the clerk office department, but they also had finance, they had hr, they had it, they had water, they had sewage if it's a school. They had accounting, they had the hr, they had tech, they had so many other departments and obviously the student services. So it wasn't quite apples to apples when Laserfish, who were really, really good at competing with the clerks when they stepped up to the plate with us against anyone else. So knowing what our client problem was was something with an HR issue or student services. I would say, you know, one of the things that laserfish does really well is the fact that they understand the clerk's offices, the inside and out. As a competitor to us in the clerk's office, I'm going to give them the roses like they do a ah, fantastic job when it comes to clerk.
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Speaker A: However, many of our clients and I would use however or uh, but in a situation like that. However, the reason why many of our clients who were with laserfish came with us was because of that they were looking for a solution not just for the clerks. Like in your case, they were looking for something for the finance, for the hr, for student services for it. And the setup that they have for the clerk's office just wasn't customizable enough, didn't necessarily tie to the other departments. So though they have a great job with the clerks, they're just not a whole solution for the organization based on what you're looking at. Are you looking at something just for the clerk or are uh, you trying to solve the whole organization challenge with your finance and asking that Question at the end get them to validate and say yeah you're right. But either way now it paints the picture in their mind the branding that laserfish is for this. Now laserfish might try to get out of that later on, but you could tell the clients to go to their website, look at their testimonials and you'll see that 90% of the stuff is around the clerks, the scenarios that they run. So that made us. It helped me to be able to stand out. So I didn't say they did anything bad, I just said the reason why. And I It's important you preface it that way. The reason why our customers who partnered with them before chose to come to us was because of blank. And you give the reasons why your customers said that. Now you may say I don't have any customers that left from them. Well, go to the reviews like just it's very easy at that point. Go to G2 or go to Google reviews or go to any of the review platform and use that as intel to be able to tell, tell more details. So you might say something to the nature of one of the reasons many customers decide not to partner with them is because of blank. And you could emphasize what that issue may be. Well, uh, it's not as strong in other departments. It is not effective with the use case in, in schools. It doesn't have the proper storage capabilities to be able to help the IT department whatever those reviews are given. But again it's not you saying it, it's what people are saying outside about it, what their previous customers are saying it. And that carries so much weight like somebody to leave a company and to be able to go and share testimonials on the reason why they left or give reasons why they left that carries way more weight than you saying, well they're not great. Their software is just a uh, silo to one department that doesn't quite work. But giving them the competitors, giving them your customer said this makes a big difference. I found that to be effective time and time again every time I talk about a competitor. Now the third thing that I'll tell you when it comes so the first thing I told you about one, when you find out what those weaknesses of what the competitors are, you can create your next conversation or your next meetings around your strength and emphasize the weaknesses of the others. Without saying it, you can just say most of the competitors out in the space don't do blank. Or if you're looking at some of the other competitors, they may do great at this. But they can't do blank. Be sure to ask them about that. And if you know what they're going to, you know the answer they're going to get, then you can confidently say that. At that point,
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Speaker A: show you exactly what we did. It's amazing. Now the third thing that I'll tell you how you can talk about your competitor without badmouthing them is to have the prospect they're working with do so. So I would turn it around on them. Well, you sounds like you've done some research already. What are some of the doubts that you have about, say, prospect C? They might say, well, uh, you know, I'm, I've heard about this and heard about this what else have you heard? I've also heard this and also heard that and they say, well, I don't know anything else beyond that. Well, you can say all of those then you can validate it. Yes, I've heard those same things as well. But here's why I feel that. Here's why I feel that you would find our solution most effective because of you're, uh, looking to solve blank point pain. Correct. You're looking to solve this issue. Correct. Looking to solve that issue. Correct. When you look at them, apples to apples, we by far are the best in the market. And I don't want you to take my words for here are some of our customers I've said who'd recently partnered with us in particular to those issues. And I would point out some of the things our customers saying, but I would let the prospect badmouth those competitors. The prospect, uh, that competitor A and competitor C. Listen, you can try many different things, but I find those things help tremendously. So one, the easiest one is to build your conversation around what you know, some of those weaknesses of the your competitors are in your presentation or your meetings. Number two is my favorite is being able to talk about why your customers, your current customers left those vendors and help point out some of those weaknesses. And then number three, I would let the prospect I'm working with talk about some of the doubts that they have about those other solutions and validate that for them. And then to certify it, so to speak with some of my customer testimonial. I would love to hear from what you are coming across. How are you handling that? That's my answer to that question that came up. Hope it was helpful for that caller for that seller out there hustling. But I would love to hear your points. If you want to connect with me, you can find me on LinkedIn. Donald C. Kelly again. Donald C. Kelly, as always, I want you to thrive, I want you to succeed, I want you to raise your level of thinking. But most importantly, I want you to go out and do big things. See you on the next one. The Sales Evangelist PODC is created by
Speaker B: the Sales Evangelist sales training organization. It is produced by TSE Studios. Our podcast production manager is Nancy Paul. Our audio engineer is Jerson Obayo. Our video engineer is Dasan Cunardo. Guest management is done by Jill Vito and Christy Vertus. Our content writer is Carlisa Galbraith. Our, uh, graphic designer is Yurvish Savalia. And I'm your host and executive producer. Donald C. Kelly. Podcast network sales sales podcast sales podcast network.
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